Marie-Ève Dicaire remembers her adolescence, when she wore “armor of invincibility”. “Well yes, I’m a machine,” she replied when asked how she was doing.
“I think it comes from the fact that I was alone with my mother all my life and my mother was a machine,” says the ex-pugilist on the line. This is what she showed me as an example. My mother, there was nothing that was going to stop her. There was nothing that was going to stop him from giving me the best life I could have. »
In the world of martial arts, in which she grew up, it was necessary to have neither pain nor fear.
Then, the years passed. As her career progressed, Dicaire understood that she could talk to her coaches. “I would sit down with Stéphane [Harnois] and tell him that I was afraid of this or that affair. In the end, by talking about it together, I realized that we had solutions, that we were going to work on it. »
Thursday, the former world champion went to Ville-Marie and Dawson colleges, in Montreal, in the company of her former mental trainer, Jean-François Ménard, to talk about mental health in sport. It was all part of the Coaching Association of Canada’s Mental Health is Our Sport initiative, National Coaching Day (October 6) and World Mental Health Day (October 10). ).
In a conference presented in the form of a discussion, the duo shared their experiences and valuable advice with the young ears present…
During her interview with La Presse, Marie-Ève Dicaire was stuck in traffic on her way home. If she has just given two lectures – one in French and one in English – in just a few hours, she seems anything but exhausted. She feels rather full of energy; This is the effect that these conferences have on her, she explains to us.
“You see the impact, the spark it lights in the eyes. It gives me so much energy! ”, she blurted with enthusiasm.
The ex-pugilist wanted to make young people understand that they are not alone in experiencing challenges and difficult times, while explaining to them how to find the right resources.
“My coaches have been instrumental in my career. I have always said: I have no special talent, other than surrounding myself well. I don’t think I would be the athlete that I am, the woman that I am, without my coaches. »
The conference raised various questions from young people. “How do you get out of boxing? », asked a teenager in particular to Marie-Ève Dicaire.
“That was one of the elements of the message I wanted to send: it’s okay to think about something other than our sport,” she explains.
In her post-fight meetings with her mental trainer, Marie-Ève Dicaire was tasked with preparing a list of non-boxing activities that she planned to engage in during her leave.
Ménard also insisted to the boxer on the importance of celebrating “small victories” before her fights; managing to go to bed earlier, performing a certain technical gesture, saying no to an interview in order to rest better… So many accomplishments, all less banal than they seem.
“These girls, it’s funny because they have nothing to do with boxing, but when I was preparing for a fight, they would come and eat steamed broccoli and dry chicken with non-alcoholic gin at the House. This is what allowed me to get out of boxing. »
There is plenty of advice, and Dicaire tried to pass on as much as possible on Thursday. But perhaps the most essential thing is that… “it’s correct”. “It’s okay that it’s not okay. It’s okay to ask yourself questions. It’s okay that you fail, that you fall… Until the moment you are able to find solutions, avenues and use them to become even better. »
Marie-Ève Dicaire is currently living “her best life” to the fullest, having been retired since last March. The ex-athlete appears in different media, on television or radio, where she talks about boxing and sport in general: a new challenge that brings her a lot. “I really finished my career with a feeling of accomplishment,” she says. […] I wanted to be healthy. It’s not one more fight that was going to change what I’ve built, but it could have been one fight too many that was going to prevent me from enjoying what I have today. That makes me enjoy the life I have today even more. »
